Expert: PAPAJACK - 8/26/2007

Question
i have a 1972 penny with a small profile of Kennedys head facing Lincoln. with Kennedy engraved above the date.(1972)
is this considered a misprint or were these pennies actually in circulation. i have had the penny for 30 years.

Answer
Hello Kelli,                           

These cents are novelty souvenirs.
For the 1974 Lincoln-Kennedy cents were made many years after 1964 as a novelty.
This coin is not an error or an official issue, but was made by someone who manipulated a regular U.S. one-cent coin by simply stamping an image of John F. Kennedy next to Lincoln.
Several variations on this theme circulate. They usually come on a card with the strange similarities between Lincoln and Kennedy.

Both Were Shot
Lincoln shot in a theater and Kennedy's assassin was caught in a theater.
Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy and J. F. Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln.
ETC…

None of these fantasy coins hold a numismatic value. They are worth only a cent or maybe more as a conversation piece. They have been made since the late sixties.

Your cent was a normal coin prior to its disfigurement.

Here are some sites giving the coincidences some are off the wall.

http://theshadowlands.net/jfk.htm

http://hcs.harvard.edu/demon/issues/nov_20_1999/lincoln-kennedy/lincoln-kennedy....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Dryguy/Lincoln_Kennedy_Coincidences

I hope this information helps. Please remember to rate this answer. And check the nomination box on the rating page below any comments you may have.

Good Luck

PapaJack